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MEMBERS ONLY THE MEETING PLACE FOR ALL THINGS NGCOA More Than a Pretty Face Oak Quarry is Stunning, but it takes more than looks to win the NGCOA Course of the Year award G olfers who arrive early enough at the Oak Quarry Golf Club outside Riverside, California, enjoy a special treat. A visual feast anytime of the day, mornings reveal Oak Quarry as a multicolored pinball machine, with rays of light shooting across massive bunkers that edge their way into the sides of Mount Jurapa. But guests need not despair a late afternoon tee time. As the sun goes down, the light show takes on different hues while shadows lengthen across what was once a working quarry. In fact, Oak Quarry is a kaleidoscope of colors and scenery any time of the day and throughout the year. Normally a desert-style course with sparse vegetation similar to what golfers encounter farther south, Oak Quarry really shows off in the spring, when yellow brittlebush dot the surrounding hillsides. If golf had a national park, it would be the Oak Quarry Golf Club, the winner of the NGCOA’s 2013 Course of the Year Award. The picturesque course winds through the jagged terrain of Riverside’s historic Jensen Quarry. Originally opened during World War I as the Riverside Cement Company, the quarry was a major source of marble, limestone and other minerals used in the construction of buildings, freeways and bridges in southern California. The quarry was abandoned Oak Quarry, the 2013 NGCOA Golf Course of the Year in 1979 and the land sat idle until the design team of Schmidt- Curley, with help from PGA Tour player Dr. Gil Morgan, built one of California’s most stunning courses. Oak Quarry opened in 2000 and has since become a destination for golfers throughout the area as well as for a number of international guests. “This is the one course that I’ve managed in my 20 years where every day I hear people talk about how amazing the views are, how great the holes are, and how good the turf conditions are,” says Brent Perkins, the club’s general manager. “The icing on the cake for us as operators is when we hear people talking about the service they received.” A lot of talk revolves around the award-winning No. 14 hole, known as Spinel Slide. Considered the best par-3 in
southern California by many, Spinel Slide plays 214 yards from the back tees into the lowest part of the old quarry. A stunning white wall of limestone rock towers nearly 400 feet above the hole, shimmering in the afternoon sun. If Oak Quarry is golf’s national park, Spinel Slide is its No. 1 attraction and most daring thrill ride. Perhaps more impressive is the commitment to excellence displayed by Oak Quarry’s owners. The course was purchased in 2003 by the Koh family, which has been involved in a number of different businesses, from property management to wholesale art supplies to financial services. In less than a decade, Oak Quarry president Samuel Koh, management and staff have given the course a resort-like ambiance without losing the family operated charm. Koh calls the facility’s natural landscape, highly trained hospitality team, carefully selected vendor partners and loyal customers the “recipe for something truly unique.” It does seem to be a successful concoction. In 2012, the daily fee course hosted 48,000 rounds (up 6 percent over the prior year) and ended the year with an 8 percent increase in revenues (green fees, food and beverage and golf shop). Perkins credits the performance to a simple philosophy of “great golf and great experience.” Oak Quarry has assembled a diverse staff (80 percent are minorities) to execute on its philosophy and deliver its distinctive experience. Koreans, Hispanics, African-Americans and native Hawaiian islanders are among those who cater to an equally diverse clientele. “Our customers have a wide range of backgrounds, and when they see a diverse staff and hear their own language, I think that makes the course a little more inviting,” Perkins notes. In addition to providing jobs, Oak Quarry supports its community as a site for fundraisers that benefit organizations such as St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital. Koh also serves as president of the Koh Charitable Foundation and is active in fundraising programs that support pediatric epilepsy research in southern California. Meanwhile, Oak Quarry’s commitment to golf’s growth is evidenced in Koh’s support of the California Golf Course Owners Association, for whom he and the Oak Quarry staff help produce marketing materials aimed at attracting new players to the sport. Perkins also volunteers as an assistant coach for the University of California-Riverside men’s and women’s golf teams. Collectively, these efforts have helped Oak Quarry, which is located between the golfing meccas of Palm Springs and Los Angeles/Orange County, establish itself as a fixture on the California landscape. “We’re a little bit of a drive for many of our guests, but they seem to think of us as a destination that’s worth the drive,” Perkins says. Short Takes From San Diego THE DOORS HAVE LONG SINCE CLOSED on the 2013 NGCOA Annual Conference, yet the event’s impact is still being felt far and wide. Following the on-course educational offerings of the Day at the Golf Facility (page 49) and the thought-provoking keynote address of Mike Veeck (page 11), NGCOA Annual Conference attendees immersed Donna Orender joined others to discuss how to “connect with her.” themselves in business-critical topics ranging from employee engagement to negotiation tactics to sales strategies for success. Conference-goers seemed genuinely pleased and intrigued by the entire educational line-up, which alternated between low-tech, high-takeaway presentations like this year’s Golf Business Ideas of the Year session and technology-laced interactive sessions like the one devoted to maximizing direct tee time bookings. Equally compelling was the session moderated by consultant Jim Baugh that included a panel of industry experts who were collective in their cry that if the game is going to thrive, the industry must step beyond its comfort zone to attract what Baugh dubs “the low-hanging fruit, which is women.” As Donna Orender (above) explained, “Women speak a different language and respond to different cultural stimuli,” so the industry must adapt accordingly. From start to finish, the world’s largest gathering of course owners and operators lived up to its billing as an agent for positive change—for individuals, their businesses and the industry.
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Page 4 and 5: Greensmaster ® TriFlex TM & TriFle
Page 6 and 7: Viewpoint From the CEO T he unsung
Page 9 and 10: CONTENTS March ‘13 20 24 FEATURES
Page 11 and 12: THE STAKES ARE TOO BIG TO SETTLE FO
Page 13 and 14: First NEWS, VIEWS, [ TRENDS & ANALY
Page 15 and 16: Industry Pulse December 2012 Monthl
Page 17 and 18: Industry Pulse December 2012 Averag
Page 19 and 20: Long On the Range The Hype: Trojan
Page 21 and 22: parcel, the Lemons had something di
Page 23 and 24: marketing and advertising agency, a
Page 25 and 26: THIS CAR HAS IT ALL BATTERIES WITH
Page 27 and 28: hese days, you can’t grow revenue
Page 29 and 30: Runs in: Mar, Jul, Oct Consider a g
Page 31 and 32: Hills Golf Course in Fullerton, Cal
Page 33 and 34: © 2013 Illustrations by David Cutl
Page 35 and 36: “You just NEVER KNEW when you wer
Page 37 and 38: “Bentgrass has RUN a lot of good
Page 39 and 40: diately. When Elwinger approached h
Page 41 and 42: “I don’t think there will be mu
Page 43 and 44: ommunity A positive Outlook can hel
Page 45 and 46: Keeping Guests Happy s the battle t
Page 47: Playin’ In the Sand he shortest d
Page 51 and 52: Creating a New Labor Model Jeff Spa
Page 53 and 54: MEMBERS IN MOTION Purchasing Networ
Page 55 and 56: C L A S S I F I E D S (Pinehurst ar
Page 57 and 58: d Index Interact with the companies
Page 60: [ Who Says Three’s a Crowd ] Ther

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